Improvement in cook-stoves



= J. VAN.

Cook Stove.

Patented Oct. 17. 1865.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN VAN, OF CINCINNATI, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT IN COOK-STOVES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No, 50,519, dated October17, 1865.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN VAN, of Gincinnati, Hamilton county, Ohio, haveinvented new and useful Improvements in Stoves; and I do hereby declarethe following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof,reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of thisspecification.

My invention relates to a new and useful mode of securing together theparts of stoves without the use of rods.

The plates constituting the top, bottom, and sides of stoves arecommonly secured together by a number of rods, which being passed downthrough holes in the top plate traverse the interior of the stove andprotruding through other holes in the bottom plate are secured by nuts.These rods, which have almost universally superseded the various formsof flanges and short screw bolts, are themselves very objectionable onseveral grounds. Being of wrought-iron, their manufacture is necessarilya distinct one from and more costly than that of the foundry proper.Being long and slender, they are very liable to become bent, and arethen useless until straightened, and even when straight their insertionin the stove is notoriously a slow and tedious operation. Being ofwrought-iron and usually surrounded by the flame and intensely hotemanations of combustion, they quickly burn out, a casualty that isfraught with inconvenience and even danger to users, especially inplaces remote from cities. They act to accumulate soot and ashes, andthereby to clog and impair the efficiency of the lines. Their greaterexpansibility causes them to slacken and to permit the loosening of theplates from one another and the consequent opening of the seams. Thelast-cited evil induces the practice of tight screwing in first settingup of the stove, which puts the plates on a strain and renders themliable to crack on the first application of heat and cold. They detractfrom the appearance of the stove. They are more than ten times theexpense of my fastenings, which being nearly invisible do not in theleast impair the ornamental finish of the stove. In fact, the expense ofmy fastening is practically nominal merely, being but two or four smallscrews, and the labor of tapping the screw-holes therefor, say, notexceeding five cents a stove, while a suit of the customary rodswillaverage at least fifty cents per stove. A signal advantage of myprinciple is the ease with which the stove may be set up or taken downand the facility for being packed in boxes or hogsheads piecemeal, thuspreventing loss by breakage.

Figure l is a perspective view of a stove embodying my invention, thetop and bottom plates being detached from the sides. Fig. 2 is avertical section through one of the rear corners.

A, B, C, O, D, and E represent respectively the bottom, top, side,front, and back plates, forming the exterior of the stove.

F are pockets formed at the corners of the bottom and top plates, A B,respectively.

G are lips projecting from the front plate, D, which lips enter thepockets F in the front corners of the bottom and top plates.

The rear edges of the side plates are rabbeted at c to fitpeculiarly-formed plates H, called by me the locking-strips.Thelocking-strips are provided with lips G, which enter their appro-.

priate pockets F in the rear corners of the bottom and top plates. Thelocking-strips are lapped or halved to projections c from the backplate, to which they are attached by small screws I, of which there maybe one screw to each locking-strip, as at m, or one screw only to a pairof locking-strips, as at y.

The process of setting up is both simple and expeditious. The oven andother interior portions being set in their places between the sideplates, as usual, the said plates are placed upon the bottom plate. Thelips G of the front plate are then made to enter their appropriate pockets F. The top plate, B, is then so applied as for the upper trout lipsto enter their pockets. The lips G of the locking-strips H being thenengaged in their pockets and screwed fast at their overlapping portions,the work is complete.

In order to prevent the accidental unshipping of the stove-doors, eachupper socket, K, is a separate casting in the form of a dovetail, and issecured to its place between two undercut and converging checks by a fewtaps of a hammer.

The accompanying illustration represents my mode of fastening applied toa common cooking-stove but I do not propose to restrict my invention tothe precise form or application herein described, so long as the end isobtained by means substantially equivalent. For example, thelocking-strips may screw to each other instead of to projections uponthe back plate, or the locking devices may be transferred to the sideplates or otherwise. Nor is it intended to confine the invention tocooking-stoves, as the principle is evidently applicable to a greatvariety of warming and cookin g apparatus, such as hall, parlor, andoffice stoves, hot-air and other furnaces, kitchen-ranges, &c.

I claim herein as new and of my invention- 1. The mode of fastening theexterior plates of a stove by means of the pockets F, lips G G,locking-strips H, and screws 1, or devices substantially equivalent.

2. The detachable dovetailed hinge-socket K, for the upper pivot of astove-door.

In testimony of which invention I hereunto set my hand.

JOHN VAN.

Witnesses:

GEO. H. KNIGHT, A. .1. REDNUY.

